Biographical Notes

Takayo Noda is a collage artist, printmaker, writer, and illustrator. She was born in Tokyo, Japan, and studied at Gakushuin University in Tokyo. She moved to New York City with her then husband in 1961 and has lived there since. She, however, travels back to Japan regularly.

She devoted most of her time as a wife and mother until her son became a high school student. However, the art training she had in Japan helped her to work for Women's Day magazine as a freelance crafts designer. Occasionally, she had the opportunity to exhibit her collages at one of the local galleries in the West Village during those years.

It was her long-time dream to become an artist since she was very young but she felt the art training she had had in Japan was not good enough to advance her career in art; hence she wanted to have further training to cultivate her artistic mind and develop more skill to reach a true professional level. Therefore, it was a natural progression for her to go back to school to pursue art in depth, as soon as her son became old enough. She studied with Robert Conover at The New School for Social Research and Michael Ponce de Leon, Seong Moy, and Leo Manso at the Art Students League. She started showing her work publicly in 1981 and has received numerous awards.

Selected Awards

Gold Medal of Honor for Graphics, Audubon Artists, NYC

Silver Medal of Honor for Graphics, Audubon Artists, NYC

First Prize for Graphics, Art Association of Harrisburg, Harrisburg, PA

Award in Honor of Krishna Reddy, Society of American Graphic Artists, NYC

Salmagundi Club Award, Allied Artists of America, NYC

Purchase Prize, Honolulu Academy of Arts, Honolulu, HI

Acquisition Award, University of Hawaii Hilo, Hilo, HI

Selected One-Person Shows

Zimmerli Art Museum, Brunswick, NJ

The National Arts Club, NYC

Tiffany & Co. Windows

Donnell Library, NYC

Interchurch Center, NYC

Port Washington Public Library, Port Washington, NY

Pen and Brush, NYC

Selected Group Shows

National Academy of Design, NYC

Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR

UBS Gallery, NYC

Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH

Newark Art Museum, Newark, NJ

Museum of American Illustration, NYC

Alexandria Museum of Art, Alexandria, LA

United Nations, NYC

International Exhibitions in India, Spain, Sweden, Venezuela, England

Selected Collections

Zimmerli Art Museum; all of her illustrations from two picture books, Dear World and Song of the Flowers

Metropolitan Transportation Authority

New Orleans Museum of Art

Portland Art Museum

Art Students League

National Arts Club

Lotos Club

Silvermine Guild Center for the Arts

Commisions

1998, MTA Arts for Transit, NYC Transit Program, Subway Poster, NYC

2006, MTA Arts for Transit, original design for six faceted glass windows for Sutter Avenue subway station on L-line in Brooklyn, www.mta.info/mta/aft